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In many ways, Portugal is the most enjoyable of my 3 yearly winter bike trips. It is true that I get to ride with a very social group in Claremont whereas I ride alone in Portugal. But Portugal is the one I think about and plan in my mind as I ride the rest of the year. Each day I ride out of Lagos, eat in a wonderful restaurant, ride home and spend the night drinking and eating in the bars and restaurants of Lagos.
How was 2019 different from the 3 other years? It was not quite as richly social. I picked up a few friends but not as many as last year. I really have mastered the lunch time restaurant stops. I found some new dinner stops and had a wonderful seat companion on the Lisboa Boaton flight. In 2018 I lost my phone in Boston before the trip and had a couple days of rain. 2019 went pretty smoothly.
Socially, the bullwork of my stay is Baffi Bar and the owner, Valentina. I normally show up as soon as I can to her 5pm opening. I have a couple of drinks. Go out to other establishments for a while. Return and eat dinner from the wonnderful Italian menu that her partner Simona creates and certainly head off to bed by 10pm before things get too rocking. In order not to be too much a slave to obsessive compulsive, I only eat at Baffi every other night.
Riding. The first 2 days I try to get the pain out of the way. I am always afraid that if I do not, I will come up with excuses to avoid the hard ride. So the first 2 days I ride up the Mt. Monchique road from West to East. Then for the next 9 days I alternate going West toward Sagres and East toward Portiamo. In the East, I eat 3 days at a wonderful restaurant called Solar Do Farelo, In the west, I eat two lunches at a surfing place called Zavail. The rides to the West are at least twice as long.
Staying. For the second year in a row I have taken a room in the Guest House Casa do Sol. It really works quite well for me. I have the same room on the ground floor so it is easy to keep the bike right outside my room door. The first year in Lagos I used an airbnb but since then I have used Guest Houses as it gives me a little more access to other travelers. This year I only had a few fellow lodgers but Casa do Sol is about as close as I would want to be to Baffi Bar and has easy access for my bike when I am leaving in the morning and returning in the afternoon.
Below are links to more details.